World Report 2019: Reversing Autocrats’ Attacks on Rights

New Alliances of Governments, Civic Groups Winning Victories

(Berlin, January 17, 2019)
– There is a growing global
trend to confront the abuses of headline-grabbing autocrats, Human Rights Watch
said today in launching its World Report 2019.
Within the European
Union, at the United Nations, and around the world, coalitions of states,
often backed by civic groups and popular protests, are pushing back against anti-rights
populists.

In the 674-page World Report 2019, its 29th edition,
Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In
his introductory
essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth says
that the big news of the past year is not the continuation of authoritarian trends
but the growing opposition to them. That pushback could be seen in efforts to resist
attacks on democracy in Europe, prevent a bloodbath in Syria,
bring to justice the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims in
Myanmar,
stop the Saudi-led
bombing and blockading of Yemeni
civilians, defend the longstanding ban on chemical weapons, convince Democratic
Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to accept constitutional term
limits, and demand a full investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist
Jamal Khashoggi.